Thursday, March 06, 2008

I hardly ever talk about Magik Markers in Blastitude, mainly because I've never figured out how to describe their particular genius. I know they have their haters, duh, listen to their music, tons of people are gonna hate it, but even at their most theoretically unlistenable they are still slowly accumulating a single body of work, a single reverberation of pride and isolation that rings loudly and defiantly throughout these years of thick and gruelling internet 'freedom'. Even if you might've seen and hated a live show once, I would recommend that you listen to the records, and listen to at least three or four, because there are atmospheres and trances and texts and stances in there that will surprise you, popping up all over the place. Where do I start?, you may ask, and well, I would start right up with their most recent one Boss, which is something of a masterpiece (and also their most accessible release ever, but that's not why I'm recommending it), or their 'debut' from 3 or 4 years ago with the awesome title I Trust My Guitar etc., or the A Panegyric To The Things I Do Not Understand slimline CD on Gulcher, my first scorching inkling that they could really make a killer album (even when it was just two live tracks), or this one right here with an even more awesome title, Road Pussy. A lot of what blossomed into Boss a year or so later is already being worked with here - listen to the first song "Bad Dream", it's a piano ballad, almost like a demo for one of those well-produced tracks on Boss... the second song "Mr. Soul" is one of those strangely patient aggro zone-outs, with Elisa improvising up a particularly good storm on the title, which has nothing to do with Neil Young. "Summer" is an appropriately humid-sounding slow-burn with some good lyrics: "Summer...when the garbage rots/Summer...when the freaks get shot/Summer...it's gonna get long and hot"..... And the last track is an actual comical advertisement for the album itself that features a spot-on usage of the phrase "Jesus shit!".... Oh yeah, and speaking of Uncle Neil, does anyone have a link to a 1970 Crazy Horse bootleg called Electric Prayers? .... Ah, The Shoes, finally listened to this 1977 classic from beginning to end, what a great lo-fi/sci-fi rock sound, Star Wars in the living room. I don't think there's any sci-fi in the lyrics (which all sound like love stuff), it's all in the sound of the guitars and the backing vocals..... Got an LP in the mail, return address Adam Stonehouse, SF, CA, no cover, just a record in a white paper inner sleeve, blank white labels with "SIDE A" and "SIDE B" written in sharpie. I even checked the runout groove, no info there either! So we could call this an Adam Stonehouse solo LP because that's the only identification on or in the whole entire parcel, or we could call it an LP by The Hospitals, because Adam Stonehouse is the founding and as far as I know only constant member of that band, and this definitely sounds like The Hospitals, although I could swear that it does have more of a one-man bedroom-psych feel than their last real release, I've Been To The Island Of Jocks And Jazz (Load Records, 2005). For example Stonehouse is a drummer/vocalist when The Hospitals play live (once again "as far as I know," which isn't very far), but the drums on here are pushed way into the background, and generally, or at least with the volume kinda low at 1AM, this sounds like a very loud and strange solo recording for masses of vocals and electric guitars. It's as if Blue Cheer recorded a loner bedroom psych album, only they did it with all of their concert gear, stacked up and plugged in right next to the mattress and pillows. (Actually that's not a good comparison - regarding volume and craziness, maybe, but the songwriting vernacular is much different - this is way weirder, much more avant-garde, no blues changes.) But anyway, I'm sure this is The Hospitals album that DJ Rick is talking about here (February 26, 2008 post), it probably has a sleeve, etc. (Update: this album also has a website.)